Natural
The whole cherry dries with the fruit still on the seed. The oldest method and the least forgiving of a bad picking pass.
- Family
- Natural
- Processing character
- Subtle
Natural processing is what people did before anyone had water to spare. Ripe cherry is spread out whole and dried with the fruit intact, then hulled once it's down to moisture.
The fruit sugars stay in contact with the seed for the entire dry, which is where the body and the berry character come from. It also means the coffee is fermenting slowly the whole time, in open air, with whatever yeast happens to be present.
That's the risk. A natural takes two to five weeks on beds or patios and has to be turned constantly. Piled too deep it molds. Left too long it goes to vinegar and ferment defect. Picked with any underripes in the mix, there's no washing channel later to sort them out.
A clean natural is a picking and turning discipline as much as a method. Done well it reads as sweetness and fruit depth rather than as process.
The fruit sugars stay in contact with the seed for the entire dry, which is where the body and the berry character come from. It also means the coffee is fermenting slowly the whole time, in open air, with whatever yeast happens to be present.
That's the risk. A natural takes two to five weeks on beds or patios and has to be turned constantly. Piled too deep it molds. Left too long it goes to vinegar and ferment defect. Picked with any underripes in the mix, there's no washing channel later to sort them out.
A clean natural is a picking and turning discipline as much as a method. Done well it reads as sweetness and fruit depth rather than as process.
This is the starting presumption for the processing character scale. An individual coffee can sit higher or lower when the cup says so.
